Teaching Skiing

[HeSaidSheSaid]

Lol, your students are breaking their legs in multiple places? Ouch!

[HeSaidSheSaid]

Patience is key. Probably my own personal fail. "Just do it like I said, retard!"

[yeahman]

Get this book, Ski Tips for Kids. Your kid will love the cartoons.

[HeSaidSheSaid]

With a kid that age? Your goal should be to get 'em to shuffle around/walk in their skis and boots without pitching a fit. Keep her close to a bathroom, plenty of snacks and don't let her get too cold.

Making turns is not a priority. Climbing on snow mounds and throwing snowballs can be just as effective. You want her to get used to being outside in wintertime.

[bodywhomper]

How about working with 4 year old twins at the same time? Done it one at a time and did it successfully with their bigger brother.... the goal is for their mommy to get some skiing in with their big bro while daddy is with the little ones on the bunny hill. Im thinking about using a long bamboo pole with each holding on. We are set with harnesses. I should be able to handle getting them on and off the lift. They are small and light for their age.

Tia

[meter-man]

Creaky Dooshbag claims to be a ski school teacher.

Well that explains a lot.

EDIT: I'll be doing the twin-dance with 2 year olds this year. Lucky buggers learned to ski 21 years earlier in life than I did!

[TBS]

baker bob supports this with certain modifications for before noon.

Or after noon...

[TBS]

How about working with 4 year old twins at the same time? Done it one at a time and did it successfully with their bigger brother.... the goal is for their mommy to get some skiing in with their big bro while daddy is with the little ones on the bunny hill. Im thinking about using a long bamboo pole with each holding on. We are set with harnesses. I should be able to handle getting them on and off the lift. They are small and light for their age.

Tia

How big are these twins, in terms of weight? I've used boo and tethers with a rather athletic but total newbie skier weighing ~45lb. I learned that a good amount of centrifugal force is generated by a 45 lb kid at the outer edge of a pole - crashes can be, shall we say, spectacular, especially when the boo breaks. Trying to handle one on each end seems on the zany side for anyplace but the magic carpet

When you say harnesses, are you talking about tethers? If long enough, you could prolly handle both of them at once (one pair each hand) while they do wedgie wiggles. At least they will be crashing into each other and not you.

The key is tether length - 10' is usually enough to stop/avoid their sudden faceplants. Four feet gives you enough time to think "don't crush the kid" before their helmet whacks your ribs while you perform a maneuver that I'm told looks like a running buffalo getting shot.

In either case, please wear a GoPro and provide footage of your adventure. There's a kids stoke thread dying for content.

[HeSaidSheSaid]

A fine traversing wedge will save your ass everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

[HeSaidSheSaid]

Lol, ain't nothing wrong with a T-bar up a steep hill. Surface tows are okay. SAID NO ONE EVER.

[bodywhomper]

How big are these twins, in terms of weight? I've used boo and tethers with a rather athletic but total newbie skier weighing ~45lb. I learned that a good amount of centrifugal force is generated by a 45 lb kid at the outer edge of a pole - crashes can be, shall we say, spectacular, especially when the boo breaks. Trying to handle one on each end seems on the zany side for anyplace but the magic carpet

When you say harnesses, are you talking about tethers? If long enough, you could prolly handle both of them at once (one pair each hand) while they do wedgie wiggles. At least they will be crashing into each other and not you.

The key is tether length - 10' is usually enough to stop/avoid their sudden faceplants. Four feet gives you enough time to think "don't crush the kid" before their helmet whacks your ribs while you perform a maneuver that I'm told looks like a running buffalo getting shot.

In either case, please wear a GoPro and provide footage of your adventure. There's a kids stoke thread dying for content.

thanks for the response. i've wondered about the pole breaking and the forces involved if they're ggo different speeds or directions. i've also considered the hula-hoop technique, with one hoop in each hand. the 4 year olds right now are ~35 and 30 lbs.

with their older brother, we never used the pole method (maybe tried once or twice just to check it out). he went from between my legs to out in front of me with 10' tethers kept loose unless i needed to save him from running into something. (10' tethers were barely long enough, ime). we'll probably need to try a few things out and not get too fancy/experimental until they are comfortable with the skis and snow and snowplow again.

other suggestions?

i would love for my whole family to be on skis at the same time.

[creaky fossil]

Well that explains a lot.

uckin fay, you and Gape Rape think you know me so well, you should just live my life for me. you already have assumed the right, may as well shoulder the full responsibilities package.

With a kid that age? Your goal should be to get 'em to shuffle around/walk in their skis and boots without pitching a fit. Keep her close to a bathroom, plenty of snacks and don't let her get too cold.

Making turns is not a priority. Climbing on snow mounds and throwing snowballs can be just as effective. You want her to get used to being outside in wintertime.

exactly. best advice is just let 'em have fun in the snow, the ambition should come from the child and not from the parent. remember kids are pretty different on when their body is not too floppy to try sliding on skis. toddlers have huge heavy heads relative to the rest of their body and it's tough for a still-floppy kid to balance well enough to slide. earliness of loss of flop doesn't depend on Star Athleticism in the parents, it depends on the individual kid. a kid who's introduced to fun outdoors in the snow has a greater chance of loving skiing than a kid who is pressured to slide when still floppy. also, short attention spans mean adult-centered learning pace is wrong, so the patience suggestions above, I'd echo and multiply.

[LightRanger]

G,

Random thoughts in no particular order having taught hundreds of kids that age:
1. boo can work. I didn't use it that often because I feel like boo and leash/harness systems teach poor balance/weight distribution early, so it ultimately takes longer for them to ski without the crutch. That said, if you have a kid who doesn't listen well, the harness/tether may be a necessity. I still managed sizable classes without though. Tether is fine if they're not leaning into it, as you mentioned above.
2. Skiing backwards in a reverse wedge while holding their tips together works. It helps when you're in your late teens/twenties though... I actually liked this better than throwing on an edgy wedgy and calling it good. You can move their skis and articulate them for them to help them learn the muscle memory, and your arms are obviously stronger than the rubber band, which often pops off without too much force.
3. Somebody mentioned a traversing wedge, and that's definitely key. I used to line the kids up with my skis off, and then have them ski one at a time at first.
4. The shallowest pitch you can find is good. I assume you have a SB pass again, so Christmas Tree probably. Even the stuff off Jerome is kinda steep for their first or second day. The old Nugget Chair at Boreal was perfect for this. The beginner chair at Soda is awesome too. Magic carpets are good, but I like to get them on the lift pretty fast.
5. I honestly think the quickest and least fussy way to do it with your own kids is one by one, and then skiing backwards holding tips. And then slow terrain progression. With bigger classes (I'd occasionally have 10 by myself, and I remember 17 with a partner instructor on a busy day), things are different.

Edit: This is all premised on what creaky and others said above. My advice assumes they can already stand and shuffle around without falling over, and that they're generally stoked to be out there. That's obviously priority #1.

[Sirshredalot]

[QUOTE=bodywhomper;.

other suggestions?

.[/QUOTE]

I'm not a fan of trying to force kids into a wedge. Most will end up in one because they don't steer their inside foot very actively, but I don't like teaching it explicitly, especially to children whose goal is to rip advanced terrain. Better to teach them to control speed via turn shape imho.

Teaching a braking wedge is useful if you've got a gaper on your hands and their objective is to be able to get off the bunny hill and ski from the top as soon as possible. It's definitely the quickest way to achieve that goal.

I'd rather spend a whole season without leaving the bunny hill and then be able to quickly ski the gnarly shit than move on to a blue groomer in a month and get stuck there for the next 5 years.

[Mofro261]

1.Avoid teaching wives/girlfriends to maintain relationship harmony.

2. Kids less than 3 do best with a ratio of 2 adults- 1 kiddo.

3. Poles are not an important piece of beginner equipment.

[raisingarizona13]

Dumb.

Sharing something you love with the people you love is a double win.

Standing with gapers on a flat teaching area during a powder day is dumb. Like really fucking dumb. Or it sure is if you actually love skiing. I guess it would be fine if you live in Maryland tho cuz the skiing sucks so bad no matter what.

You know you can share it with others without punching a clock or blowing it on a powder day.

[XXX-er]

Yup^^people say to me "why don't you patrol or teach skiing?"

to which I reply "I don't need the money and when its going off ... so am I "

[LightRanger]

3. Poles are not an important piece of beginner equipment.

x5.

[Altaholic]

Yup^^people say to me "why don't you patrol or teach skiing?"

to which I reply "I don't need the money and when its going off ... so am I "

People have said that to myself. Trollers in Jackson got to be there for a while before they are asked to join JHSP. To be a schooler, you got to sell your soul & here about your friends having fun while you teach Jimmy to do a 'Pizza' on the fun days.

[WaistDeepGroomers]

I had a great time spending a season with a crew of 5 year olds at Squaw a few seasons back, especially since it never snowed! Only had one day I was furious that it was a legit pow day and I had a class with me, more so because none of them could handle the pow and it was more or less like pulling root vegetables out of the ground for the day. But fun as hell watching them progress, cry less and less after eating shit over the course of the season. But yeah, I'd suggest doing it in Tahoe since it never snows . Otherwise, PATIENCE. If you can't manage going at a pace far slower than your own, don't bother.

[Coño Frío]

Standing with gapers on a flat teaching area during a powder day is dumb. Like really fucking dumb. Or it sure is if you actually love skiing. I guess it would be fine if you live in Maryland tho cuz the skiing sucks so bad no matter what.

You know you can share it with others without punching a clock or blowing it on a powder day.

Hey bro, I live in in MD, yeah the skiing sux, but I'd still rather put the little ones in a lesson. I'm not a Doctor....I have no patients!

[Like a Boss]

Yeah ski instructing sucks. You never get any powder days. Especially the mid-week dumps during non-holidays when there are no crowds and you have the mountain to yourself. It's better to shred all day and then go wait tables.

[raisingarizona13]

Lol, ain't nothing wrong with a T-bar up a steep hill. Surface tows are okay. SAID NO ONE EVER.

I love surface lifts. Simplicity has it's benefits and they can run in winds that would shut down any chairlift.

[creaky fossil]

surface lifts > chairs for learners, much more balance/sliding practice happening secondary to the get-up-the-hill component

[ScotFree]

My 2 cents:
Most people focus waaaay too much on the pizza. My pulled-out-of-my-arse theory is that this is because when parents pay for lessons they want to see their kids skiing quickly, but it is a slow road to actually getting kids skiing anything other than the magic carpet. After teaching my 2 kids and several others to ski, here's my advice:
1) Motivation is the most important thing. Chocolate, snowball fights, whatever silly games you can come up with are important. Even more important is being happy to just take a break for an hour or two or go sledding when they are done at lunchtime.
2) The most important skill a beginning skier needs is to be confident standing with their skis edged across the fall line. Lots of good things come from this... (edges, traversing, stopping, etc.) If you can stand across the fall line then you can point your tips downhill a little and traverse across a green slope. When they get to the edge, they'll tend to panic and fall down. If necessary a tether or a lightly handled pole can get most kids to this point without being completely out of control, but it's important to allow them to balance mostly on their own rather than trying to hold them up. (Think along the lines of a pole for a tightrope walker.
3) The second most important thing is to figure out how to get up again when they fall. The easiest way is to get them in the habit of rolling on their back, putting their skis together and then putting them across the fall line downslope. Then they can either get up on their own, or get up with a *small* assist from below. This is where I see alot of frustration when people try to get up with their skis in the wrong place, or help a kid up with the kid's skis in the wrong place... it's just comical. Note that you can have a relaxing, if not moderately pleasurable, day at this point without the kid needing to turn... just continued traverses across some (hopefully) wide greens. Good ideas: pick a particular tree or lift pole across the slope and get them to head for it. Congratulate them wildly when they make it across without falling, or pick up too much speed and panic a little before falling.
4) Now you can proceed with pizza vs. frenchfries... the key being that they have already learned/ become commfortable with the fact that frenchfries go across the fall line... pizzas just save them time at the end because they don't have to fall down.. As the get more confidence going faster, they can round their pizza turns more and move more directly down the fall line..